


your hand (in my hand)

by xiiaeo



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fateful Encounter, Hookups, M/M, One Night Stand, Strangers to Lovers, Summer Festival, alcohol consumption, general festival things, tispy sex, unless...?, what happens at the festival gets taken to the backstreets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24787159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiiaeo/pseuds/xiiaeo
Summary: Again, they didn’t know the band performing, and Seokmin was left to wonder why either of them were there at all, but maybe it was just so that they could meet each other.
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 30
Kudos: 106
Collections: Enduring Dawn Round 1





	your hand (in my hand)

**Author's Note:**

> was supposed to be 3k pwp one night stand with a little booze but here we are and i don't want to talk about it
> 
> title taken from [hands](https://open.spotify.com/track/4n2G1Wxz1gYxe7AhYV7N9E?si=SoTa5zQKTPSCFKCVTilDEw) by barns courtney

The way the songs blurred into one, pulsed about the floor and reverberated against his skin was something Seokmin absolutely _loved_ , and he'd be damned if he had backed out of going to the festival just because he had nobody to go with. It was supposed to be a break from life for the three of them, something that they had saved up for between bills and projects to have a day of summer fun, but life had gotten in the way again, as it routinely did. 

Seokmin was the only one spared from the call of duty, allowed to keep his tickets to himself and not have to forfeit them for a refund, and he had been urged to go by his two friends, informed that he would have a good time regardless of their absence. He was skeptical at first, one to enjoy large gatherings as long as he was housed within his little group of comfort in said gatherings, so to be one lonesome body in a raving crowd was not at the top of his wishlist, so to speak, but he let himself mull over it for a few days and became convinced that he could make the most of the situation if he let himself. Even if he was accompanied, it wasn’t like he would be able to speak to his friends as they bounced around with the music, deafened by melodies, and at most they would serve as a tether to keep him from getting swept from stage right to stage left, tossed from one failed mosh pit to the next.

He had spent a while in front of the main stage, singing along with the crowd to popular songs that had polluted the radio for far too long, but he eventually had no choice but to worm his way through the masses, exposed skin sticking to strangers in a mixture of sweat and sun cream, before he peeled himself off to keep trekking on, in desperate search of water to combat the soaring temperatures. His feet cried into his trainers as he trod over the cracked soil, and he reveled in the supposedly fresh air when he emerged from the crowd a new man, with sweat beading along his forehead.

The water was not free, nothing was, but he would pay absolutely anything just for the tiniest sip, and supposed that was why they made it so expensive in the first place. There was, however, a place to get free refills if you had a bottle, but he had misplaced his somewhere in the crowd; one moment it was poking out of the large pocket of his shorts and the next it was nowhere to be seen, the only remnants of it being the black speckles left on his hand from where the ink of the label had rubbed off due to the humidity.

Now that he had acquired a bottle after using up all of his loose change, he marched towards the queue for free refills as he downed the icy liquid without pausing for breath. The sun wasn't even that high in the sky anymore but he longed for it to settle behind a cloud, and yet there were none present for as far as the eye could see.

After getting his free refill, drinking it at the tap, and refilling it again, he wandered away from the main stage and towards the village of vintage clothing huts, merch stands, and large circus tents that housed hordes of high, drunk, and high and drunk festival goers, with the occasional supervisory friend dotted around, exasperated as the incapacitated were dragged into mosh pits, seemingly to never be seen again.

Seokmin himself wasn't drunk and was in no rush to be so, not when he had to catch the last train back by himself and had no sober friend to care for him, but he was happily tipsy, and wouldn't mind getting another drink after figuring out from where he could withdraw some more cash. He wandered aimlessly around and was drawn to a tent sign-posted as the DJ stage when the bass reached him from over ten metres away, and this time he kept his bottle in his hand as he meandered deeper into the crowd, glad to be shielded from the sun by the material roof.

He found himself a space in the middle of the crowd and slightly to the left, but it wasn’t like he needed to be near the front for this performance. Speakers were set up everywhere on the beams holding the tent up, and strobe lights flickered so fast that it felt like he was watching a stop motion movie unfold right before himself. He had no clue who the DJs on the stage were and could barely make out what they were saying in their rap, but he still had an arm stretched to the heavens, waving his hand back and forth in time with the beats, or occasionally lagging behind when he would stumble due to being jostled around.

It didn’t matter that the music was terrible at best, arguably just noise, and it didn’t matter if someone whipped their cup up into the air and let it rain down onto you and a bunch of other innocent bystanders, when the beat dropped, you jumped, that was the universal rule of such haunts, and Seokmin was one to abide by it.He'd be lying if he said he wouldn't rather be laughing and dancing into a phone's camera as Mingyu held it up over them to capture the memory, with Minghao shrieking inaudibly as water splashed onto his back from somewhere, but he was genuinely enjoying himself alone, nonetheless.

A ring of guys forced everyone back to create a circle and one of the DJs pointed to it from the stage, instructing everyone to make it wider as the music built up. Seokmin struggled to stay upright as everyone was pressed against each other in an attempt to make the space, and he found himself on the edge of what was a very menacingly empty mosh pit, begrudgingly accepting the fact that he _was_ going to end up in the centre of it and that he didn't have a choice in the matter.

Some girls danced about in it a whole bar too early, and were promptly lost to Seokmin when the beat did actually drop, and everyone surged into the space in a jumping dance, though that was putting it nicely. In actuality, Seokmin was always amazed that nobody got seriously injured from the chaos of it all as he himself reached out to grab a much shorter girl by the shoulders when she was about to fall and no doubt be trampled to an early grave.

She yelled words of gratitude at Seokmin and was then dragged away by a chain of friends who had clearly had enough of the hectic atmosphere and were snaking their way towards the nearest exit. A desperate hand clutched at Seokmin's arm for purchase and he turned to see a guy his age smiling up in a coy apology that doubled as a thank you for the taller being a beacon of stability in the raving crowd.

Seokmin's features didn't move an inch as he stared down at the stranger in open mouthed awe, watching him be painted in every colour of the rainbow as spotlights streaked across his face and stuttered through their spectrum, leaving him feeling like his eyes were the shutter of a camera that had only one subject. The other's eyes flickered around Seokmin's features, pupils at different positions every time the light illuminated him again, and he saw an instant intrigue root itself in the stranger's eyes too.

His hair reflected the light, pink at one moment, blue the next, and Seokmin was led to believe it was blond as it hung into his eyes, the ends stuck together with sweat. He had rounded features, full lips, but sharp eyes, and Seokmin only realised he hadn't been dancing when the bass pulsed through the soil again and the crowd surged around them. A jiggling mass of sweaty, shirtless flesh plowed between their connection, and Seokmin felt the stranger's fingers slip from around his wrist with a slight scratch; a pain that was gone just as quick as the one who inflicted it, for he was nowhere to be seen when the obstruction continued barreling on past.

Seokmin would be lying if he said he didn't look around for the other, but it was hard to spot someone he'd only know for a few seconds in a crowd of waving arms and flashing lights, especially considering that the other was below the collective average height of the room. He was lost to the music but Seokmin tried not to dwell on it since he had literally _just_ encountered the other, after all, and he went on enjoying the performance.

It wasn't long before it started to feel a little repetitive to him, the same recycled beat with rap lyrics mumbled over it that he couldn't hope to decipher, and it seemed his opinion was shared with the artists themselves, as they announced this as the last song while they took a short break. Naturally, everyone began to file out in the newfound silence, taking no joy from standing in a tent void of a party atmosphere, and Seokmin let himself be swept along into the outside.

He was surprised to see that the sky had begun to turn a dull grey as the night settled in and was left wondering for how long had he been part of the rave before the DJ stage, but his arm was knocked forwards when he went to reach for his phone to check the time, and it slipped out of his hand into a patch of struggling grass. He immediately rushed to pick it up and panicked when another grip beat him to it, breath knocked out of him when he glanced up to be met with black-lined eyes staring at him through blond locks, "Think you dropped this."

"Thanks," Seokmin took the device back, unable to hide the wonder in his voice as the stranger took his arm and inspected it, ears ringing.

"Did I scratch you? I thought I did."

"It's fine," Seokmin assured, and yet let him do whatever he pleased with the limb, "I'm Seokmin."

He smiled, sharp eyes hidden behind plump cheeks, and let Seokmin's arm flop back against his side, "Soonyoung. Thanks for in there."

Soonyoung gestured vaguely to the large tent that loomed behind Seokmin, and then continued before the latter had a chance to reply, "You here alone?"

"Yeah," Seokmin admitted, slightly sheepish and fully expecting Soonyoung to laugh at his answer, and not at all anticipating the one he got in return.

"Me too," Soonyoung craned his neck to the side and rolled his shoulders back, "Friends are working."

"Same here," Seokmin smiled, glad they had something in common already.

Soonyoung appeared to fully take in his appearance now that they weren't shrouded in complete darkness, and ran appreciative eyes back up Seokmin's form as he tipped his head back, hands cradling it at the nape, "Let me buy you a drink, as a thank you?"

Seokmin wanted to protest to the offer, insist that what he did absolutely did not warrant a reward at all, never mind an overpriced liquor that they'd have to queue for a lifetime to acquire, but he was not about to refuse the chance to get to know the other, even if only for one night, "Yeah, I'd like that."

The corners of Soonyoung's lips quirked up in a lazy smile as he took Seokmin by the hand as if he'd done it a thousand times before, and he dragged him through the meandering masses to the nearest pop-up bar to join the queue, wordless for the entire journey. This left Seokmin to his thoughts for a little while, his most prominent one being how he didn't mind the sweat mingling between their palms as Soonyoung's smaller fingers wrapped around his to tug him along; a thought which was closely followed by a chain of disbelief and fascination as the surreality of the situation hit him when they came to a stop at the back of the queue.

"You here for the weekend?" Soonyoung asked, so casually, like he was talking to a friend of decades and not someone he didn't even know the last name of.

"No, just today."

"Me too," Soonyoung smiled, and only then let go of Seokmin's hand to reach into the pouch on his hip and retrieve some money, "What do you want?"

Seokmin attempted to squint at the menu and came to realise that Soonyoung had chosen a cocktail bar, "What do they have?"

Soonyoung shrugged, "I had a tequila sunrise earlier, and they've got most of the usual."

"Blue sapphire," Seokmin enunciated slowly as he discerned the bright words.

"You want that?"

"What is it?"

"Fuck if I know," Soonyoung held the note between his teeth as he fought to close the zip on his bag, voice a bit muffled, "But you can have it if you want it."

Seokmin took the note between two fingers and held it out betwixt them, waiting for the other to have his hands free again, "I think I will."

"I will too," Soonyoung took his money back in a playful snatch and then went on his tiptoes to try and see the menu for himself, immediately returning to his normal height when he caught sight of the price, "Robbing bastards."

Seokmin huffed a laugh at the cynicism, to which Soonyoung raised bemused brows, "What? Am I lying?"

"Absolutely not," Seokmin snickered as they drew nearer to the counter, "I don't even want to know how much money I've spent here, and getting here."

"God, same," Soonyoung groaned at the mere thought of thinking about it, and then pondered upon the latter part of Seokmin's sentence, "Wait, where are you from?"

This was the part of their conversation that Seokmin _really_ couldn’t believe to be true. Meeting someone like Soonyoung in a place like this was so farfetched in and of itself already, but to learn that they were from the same city, and the same _neighbourhood_ in that city, was really just too big of a coincidence for him to stomach. They threw obscenities at each other in bewildered disbelief, both accusing the other of lying for reasons that they could not fathom, and then they dissolved into laughter, marvelling over what a small world it was that they lived in as they inched closer to the bar.

“You here to see anyone in particular?” Soonyoung managed to ask after they gushed about where they each lived and worked, trying to explain the layout of the streets and surrounding buildings, and they deduced that they lived at opposing ends of the same neighbourhood so at least they had _some_ sort of relief from how fateful all of this seemed.

“Not really,” Seokmin gestured for Soonyoung to go in front of him when the queue narrowed, “Just here for a break.”

“For some fun,” Soonyoung agreed, facing backwards in the line to look up at Seokmin as he spoke, “How old are you?”

“23.”

At Seokmin’s expectant expression, Soonyoung pointed to himself, “24.”

“Treating the younger,” Seokmin said, in reference to the older currently waiting to buy him a drink.

Soonyoung hummed in disagreeal, both of them knowing _exactly_ why he was purchasing the beverage for the younger, “I _guess_ you could say that, if you want.”

Seokmin shook his head in amusement and gestured forward with a nod to indicate that the queue was moving along, to which Sooonyoung shuffled closer to the counter in confusion, “This line moves suspiciously fast.”

“It’s because they’re all underage,” Seokmin leaned closer to Soonyoung so he could point from the latter’s eyeline to a group of youths, “I just watched them get IDed.”

Soonyoung snickered at that, and when Seokmin turned to look from the group of dejected teens back to his new acquaintance, he wasn’t prepared for how close their faces were, how Soonyoung was backlit by the soft glow radiating from within the makeshift bar, and how Soonyoung smiled at the panic visible in his features, “You good?”

“Yep,” Seokmin tried to cover up the fact that his gaze flickered to Seoonyoung’s lips by holding their eye contact thereafter, but that meant he caught Soonyoung doing the exact same to him, “Fantastic.”

“That’s good to hear,” Soonyoung raised a brow of confident intrigue and then twirled to face the front as they advanced closer to the shelf of alcohol in the sweltering heat. 

Seokmin noticed a slight reddening of the skin on the back of Soonyoung’s neck, the rest of his torso otherwise protected by a plain white T-shirt aside from his arms, but they looked alright, as far as he could discern in the low-light. His shins appeared to be okay too when Seokmin spared them a quick glance, and his thighs were mostly covered by loose black shorts, definitely worn for comfort and practicality, not style. 

A snapback hung through a loop on the waistband of the shorts, also black, and Seokmin only just noticed the belt cinching his waist as his shirt, tucked in, worked to obscure it from view. It had a chain that hung from Soonyoung’s mid lower back, and no doubt the other end connected somewhere to the leather at the front; Seokmin berated his eyes for having only just noticed it.

Soonyoung must’ve been able to feel either the prickle of a burn blooming along his nape or the weight of Seokmin’s gaze on the heated flesh, because he reached a hand up to rub at the area as though irritated, so Seokmin supplied, “Your neck looks a bit sunburnt.”

“It’ll be fine,” Soonyoung waved the concern away with a dismissive scrunch of his features and then stepped up to one of the many people lining the long counter with Seokmin in tow, and ordered their two drinks. They shared in a silence as the cocktails were made for them, elegantly so, only to be poured into plastic cups in exchange for a crumpled up note.

“It’s alright,” Seokmin commented after having a sip as they walked away, slowing his pace when he realised that Soonyoung was struggling to put his change away, and accepting Soonyoung’s drink so that he had both hands free.

“It fucking better be for that price.”

Seokmin smiled in amusement at the quip and set them off in a stroll towards the massive field where the main stage was situated, but stopped dead in his tracks after noticing a cash point, much to the annoyance of everyone who was meandering along in the crowd around them, “I need to draw some cash.”

Soonyoung nodded while tipping his cocktail down his throat, showing an amazing sense of direction for someone who was looking at what was _almost_ the night sky, just the tiniest hints of daylight left in it, as he followed in Seokmin’s footsteps. 

“Wait,” Seokmin stopped, card in hand, before they weaved around the barriers that made the currently empty queue snake around on itself, “I’m going to have to pay to draw money out, aren’t I?”

“Most definitely,” Soonyoung said, entertained, and pushed Seokmin along the winding path with his free hand, “That’s how they get you.”

When they reached the ATM, the words on the screen detailed exactly how much it would charge Seokmin just to withdraw his own money from his own bank account, and he groaned at the cost, but slotted his card in nonetheless. Soonyoung jokingly peered over his shoulder to watch him type his four digit code but politely looked away when he did actually enter the numbers. Seokmin frowned at his bank balance and withdrew some cash, slipping his card into the back of his phone case, which he kept in hand, “You hungry?”

“I could nibble,” Soonyoung sauntered back out of the barriers and into the field which had emptied as everyone was crowding around the main stage in the dark, “Who’s performing?”

Seokmin squinted in the direction of the stage, unable to actually see it, like that would allow him to hear better, “No clue.”

He followed Soonyoung as they searched for a food stand that tickled their collective fancy, walking past cuisine after cuisine to wind up in the bustling queue waiting for chicken and chips, of all things. He felt himself heat up in the silence for the first time, the desire to initiate a conversation battling with his wish to just bask in Soonyoung’s presence.

There was something magnetic about Soonyoung and Seokmin had absolutely no qualms about being pulled in, and couldn’t possibly imagine a universe in which they’d repel each other. He was easy to be around, easy to talk to, which is not something you’d expect from a stranger you’d met at a festival, where you’d be more likely to run if anyone unknown so much as asked you for a sip of water.

The feeling was mutual, Seokmin could tell when Soonyoung looked up at him with an amused quirk of the lips at their silence, and they shared in a smile. Seokmin’s turned into huff of laughter before he decided to end their few wordless seconds that felt like a lifetime of acclimatising to each other, tuning to the same wavelength, “Chicken? Really?”

“Can’t go wrong with chicken,” Soonyoung stated, and did make a compelling point, “Where you staying tonight?”

“I’m not,” Seokmin smiled sheepishly after taking a swig of his cocktail, Soonyoung’s empty cup already discarded in a bin they had passed, a recycling bin, of course, “I’ve gotta catch the last train.”

“Why? You got somewhere to be tomorrow?”

“Not really?” Seokmin asked himself and was forced to try and recall why he had booked a train, instead of a hotel, “My friend does though, and I was originally going to come with him but he had to drop out.”

Soonyoung made a noise of understanding and nodded, “When is the last train?”

“Eleven thirty.”

Soonyoug glanced around as if there would just be a clock hanging around amongst the clusters of vendors, and settled for begrudgingly pulling his phone out of his pocket, “That’s two hours away.”

“I’ll have to leave at ten thirty to get the bus to the station.”

“You don’t have to, you know?” Soonyoung raised his brows with a suggestive stretch of the lips, but didn’t allow Seokmin room for reply when he pushed the younger towards the counter to order their food, “Your turn.”

Seokmin stumbled in confusion, unable to reply to Soonyoung’s first comment, removing his cash from its short-lived stay in the back of his phone case to hand it over in exchange for a box of chicken with a few pity chips. Turned out that he didn’t need to fathom a response quite yet, as Soonyoung pressed the matter further himself as he wrestled with the ketchup bottle’s cap, “You could spend the night with me.”

There was nothing hidden in that offer, it was entirely blatant, and Seokmin was shooed out of his stupour by the next person in line demanding their right to over-priced chicken, the pair of them retreating to a less densely populated area of the field where Seokmin then struggled to find his words. He didn’t want to come across as creepily eager, nor did he want to decline the invite, and that left Soonyoung staring up at him in amused expectation which only proved to render him breathless, “I uh...I could.”

“You could,” Soonyoung nodded encouragingly, lips twisting into a pout while mirth made lakes out of his eyes, “Don’t you want to?”

“I mean...I uh...”

Soonyoung’s laughter cut his stammering short and the box of chicken was pressed into his hands so that Soonyoung could dust his own off, “It’s okay, let’s just see where the night takes us.”

Seokmin dumbly followed along where he was dragged to, and they sat on the dry grass in a patch of other, seated festival goers, as everyone had decided to eat at the same time, it would seem. A breeze whipped across the field and Seokmin sighed at the brief relief it provided from the summer humidity, and yet his cheeks still felt oddly hot, ears too. They didn’t stay there for long with Soonyoung declaring his boredom immediately after they finished their food, and Seokmin his drinks, alcoholic and aquatic alike.

That’s how they found themselves back in front of the main stage, no roof above them this time, only stars, and no strobe lights streaking across their view, just the occasional cloud of smoke from lazily parted lips. Again, they didn’t know the band performing, and Seokmin was left to wonder why either of them were there at all, but maybe it was just so that they could meet each other. 

Hands found his own in the compact darkness, and after the second of indignation that he felt, before he realised that Soonyoung was the culprit, he smiled down at Soonyoung while his hands were guided to hold belted hips. Soonyoung leaned back onto him, purposefully this time, not just being forced to with the eb and flow of the bodies around them, and aside from the flood of warmth that it brought to Seokmin, he did notice that Soonyoung’s hair smelled a little fruity, not in a perfumed way, but like someone had showered him with a cocktail.

There was nothing particularly romantic about the songs that were poured out of the speakers, bass vibrating the very ground that they stood on as headlining acts were cheered for in drunken adoration, but Seokmin felt a startling sense of comfort tucked amongst the chaos, body swaying with Soonyoung’s, and as dreamlike as it all was, he wasn’t going to let himself get swept up in picking at his situation. He was beyond content to have someone to share this night with, and as much as he would’ve liked it if Mingyu and Minghao had come with him, maybe it was for the best that they didn’t; maybe everything really does happen for a reason, Seokmin thought, grinning down at Soonyoung when the latter turned around in his arms, turned his back to the stage as though Seokmin himself was more worthy of his attention.

Seokmin’s hands remained on Soonyoung’s hips, where they had been placed, resting on the band of heated leather as Soonyoung asked something with wondrous mischief in his eyes, something that Seokmin couldn’t hope to hear over the crowd, “What?”

Soonyoung appeared to laugh and he perched his hands on Seokmin’s shoulders, growing an inch on his tiptoes, and he spoke loudly against Seokmin’s ear, breath tickling, “Can I kiss you?”

Malfunctioning for a split second where everything ran in slow motion was a given, Seokmin reckoned, the natural response to being asked by a pretty blond if they could lock lips in this dance in the darkness, and his daze only proved to amuse Soonyoung who settled back down to his natural height, peering inquisitively. Seokmin let his own gaze zip between sharp eyes and flicker down to plump lips as he became acutely aware of how their bodies were connected from the hips downwards, pressed against each other by the crowd, though that was a slight lie. He didn’t know when his hands had crept to Soonyoung’s lower back or when Soonyoung’s hands had wandered from broad shoulders to cradle the back of Seokmin’s neck, but he did know one thing, finally, eventually, and he told it to Soonyoung in a nod with an inaudible word falling out between their lips for good, pointless measure. 

Kissing Soonyoung felt inexplicably right and Seokmin found himself smiling into it, internally disbelieving that this was actually happening, that he had managed to find someone in this crowd of thousands that he felt so inherently linked to, like they were designed to meet, but he was oh so glad that it _was_ happening. He was unable to discount it as a figment of his imagination, unable to reason that he had just passed out somewhere in the field and this was what his tipsy mind full of smoke had conjured up for him - a beautiful vixen who bathed under strobe lights instead of starlight - because he was unable to deny how utterly real Soonyoung was, standing there in his arms. 

Their kiss tasted like gin swirled with tequila and something sweet to fight the burn, and they only parted when they were knocked by people snaking through the crowd in a valiant and fruitless attempt to get closer to the stage, smiling thereafter before kissing again, languidly, not at all in tune with the party atmosphere but entirely in tune with each other. They swayed, lost in blissful serenity, exploring with their eyes closed and clothes on, and Seokmin forwent all sense of time as the bodies raved around them, completely ignored. 

It dawned on him then, however, that dawn would not be so relenting as to forget time in favour of savouring the moment, and that it would still roll across the sky in its golden hues regardless of whether he had made it home safely or not, and so he peeled his eyes open when they parted, fishing around for his phone and becoming panic stricken when he could not find it, much to Soonyoung’s yelled concern, “What’s wrong?”

“Fuck,” Seokmin uttered to himself, under his breath, and then spoke louder as he checked his other pocket, finding nothing at all and falling further into hysteria, “I’ve lost my phone.”

“You’ve what?” Soonyoung shouted, and Seokmin was suddenly weary of how horribly loud everything was now that he wasn’t lost in the sensation at his lips, ears ringing as a cry for reprieve. 

“My phone,” Seokmin enunciated with perfect diction close to Soonyoung’s ear and then tried to look for it on the floor of empty cups and questionable items in general, not at all a place where you would want to stick your hand to rummage around, but Soonyoung’s blond head of hair appeared in his vision nonetheless, own phone in hand as a torch that further highlighted the filth around where he crouched.

It was a useless endeavour, Seokmin decided, and not one that he would want Soonyoung to accidentally put his hand into a suspicious substance for, so he attempted to gently pull Soonyoung back to up by the elbow only for the motion to be resisted and his hold to be shrugged off. Hurt shot through his chest in a spike that was yanked out again the moment Soonyoung stood tall with a beaming smile, presenting Seokmin’s phone to him and enveloped in a bone crushing hug thereafter by Seokmin himself, “Thank you so much.”

Soonyoung laughed into the embrace, arms winding around to return it, “You’re very welcome.”

Seokmin inspected the device when he let Soonyoung go, not at all interested in the phone, though he would’ve been terribly distraught if he had lost it, but more so concerned about what he kept in his phone case; his bank card and his train tickets to get home. Everything was in order, this _was_ his phone and not someone else’s, but it was also flat, void of battery, or maybe it had been trampled on and broken, there was really no way to tell. He kept the device clutched in his hand from there on out, having to yell his initial query to Soonyoung, “What time is it?”

Soonyoung checked, face illuminated in a blue hue that he shone onto Seokmin, “Nearly ten.”

Half an hour max left before Seokmin had to head back to the train station, though he now wanted nothing more than to be out of this mass of the inebriated, heart racing at his newfound relief quashing the dread that had settled in his stomach when he thought himself to have been pickpocketed, and warm hands, a different warmth to the one that the night blanketed them in, settled on his sides, making him snap out of his own thoughts to watch Soonyoung’s words, “Do you want to leave?”

Seokmin nodded and was soon taken by the hand to be gently pulled through the crowd, faces of the audience a blur as he passed them by, and it seemed to be a whole lifetime before they finally made it out of the mass of bodies, everyone having gathered to watch what was the last stage of the night that would go well into the morning. With the pulsing music now a dull roar as they walked through the field, through the other tents and stalls that now appeared akin to a ghost town of days gone by, Seokmin felt like he could finally breathe air that nature had offered to him, not some secondhand smoke or alcoholic breath in a sweaty cloud of humidity, and he sighed heavily.

“Tired?” Soonyoung asked with a clear playful edge to his tone, and Seokmin looked to find a small smile at lips that looked deliciously kiss bitten, lips that _he_ had kissed as they both became one of thousands.

“Exhausted,” Seokmin admitted, struck with lethargy from a day of sauntering under the sun and wasting money that he didn’t have to begin with, and he was about to reach to rub his hands over his face to wipe the fatigue away, but he faltered before he could carry out the action when he realised that their fingers were still laced together as they trickled to where the buses would take them back into the city. 

“My earlier offer still stands, maybe more so now,” Soonyoung stated with ample coyness and in a slight laugh that pertained to what had just transpired in the crowd, kisses enough to last an eternity, and glanced ahead to avoid Seokmin’s gaze as though he hadn’t said this so unabashedly earlier, “You can spend the night with me, if you want.”

Seokmin was torn. On one hand, he longed to see where this night could take him, where it could take them, and what else he would come to adore about this relative stranger, though the word didn’t quite fit Soonyoung and he was quick to dismiss it from his vocabulary, and on the other hand, he _really_ did need to get that last train back, having already booked and paid for the tickets that were not the cheapest.

“What?” Soonyoung quirked a brow at the silence he received, nothing but mirth in his tone, “Is the prospect of sleeping with me really that repulsive?”

“Not at all,” Seokmin was quick to ease any sort of offence he may have instilled, feeling a flush creep along his cheeks at the way Soonyoung smiled at him, continuing with his train of thought verbally as though that would distract him from hooded eyes, “I just don’t want to worry my friends by not getting back home when I said I would.”

“They sound more like your parents,” Soonyoung muttered in merriment, having been told the simple tale of Seokmin and his two roommates while they ate their food sat on the parched grass.

“They just worry about me because I am very gullible and easy to toy with,” Seokmin pouted, ready for ridicule and not at all expecting to be cooed at, which he was.

“Aw, I haven’t been toying with you, have I?”

Even if Seokmin was going to be brutally honest, anything close to a yes would not have fallen from his lips. Nothing about these hours spent with Soonyoung, from early evening into dusk, had made Seokmin feel remotely uncomfortable or like he was just one of many, another tally in some roster of Soonyoung’s, another body to spend the night with, and he hoped that he hadn’t made Soonyoung feel that way either. Meeting strangers and potentially rendezvousing with them under the sheets was _not_ a common occurrence for Seokmin at all, and, in fact, this was the first such instance of something like _this_ happening.

Sure, he had danced with strangers at clubs before and exchanged words over drinks that were bought for him as he stood by the bar, but none of those times had lead to anything more than some harmless grinding, maybe stifled moans contained in the four walls of a bathroom stall, but it was nothing like _this._ Nothing like the feeling of being valued by Soonyoung’s gaze raking over his form in appreciation, not scrutiny, not undressing him with his eyes, nothing like the gentle clasp of their hands as Seokmin was dragged along to the cocktail bar and to get food and into the fray and even now, as they fell onto the plush seats of the bus after stepping into the air conditioned vehicle with relieved tandem, and it was nothing like the almost doting way with which Soonyoung looked at him as he waited for an answer to his query, patient, one with the night and in no rush to pressure Seokmin to speak or to do _anything_ that he didn’t want to do; Seokmin couldn’t remember, in fact, the last time that someone had asked verbal permission before kissing him, and his heart swelled at the realisation. 

“No,” Seokmin smiled, all and any lasting adrenaline from the _almost_ loss of his phone fading the longer he spent staring into kind eyes lined with black and veiled in golden strands, “Not at all.”

Soonyoung mirrored the expression as the bus lurched to a start, and pleasant silence surrounded them thereafter, but not for too long. They got talking again about how unbelievable it was that they lived in the same neighbourhood but had never met before, wondering if maybe they had passed each other by in the streets at some point with Seokmin figuring that they _must’ve_ done at least once and Soonyoung responding that it was impossible, going on to explain, at Seokmin’s demand for an elaboration, that he would remember a face as pretty as Seokmin’s after seeing it for only a second. Seokmin reached to shield his ears when Soonyoung slapped him lightly on the arm and pointed out that they were red in a voice so adoring that Seokmin kept forgetting that he knew next to nothing about Soonyoung, that they hadn’t been dating for years and this was not just one of their many outings together as a loving couple.

“There’s something magical about you,” Seokmin spoke aloud, unable to keep his awe from leaking out and glad that he didn’t when Soonyoung looked to be, for the first time, as flattered as he had been making Seokmin feel for the entire night, and Seokmin vowed from then on that it was a sight he would bring about as often as possible. 

“You really know how to make a man feel special,” Soonyoung half joked, the other half of his tone failing to cover up how warmed he was by the words, and Seokmin smiled in the brightness of the bus, dark world streaming along outside. 

The rest of the world was against them, against Seokmin in particular, with queues of traffic leading into the city and continuing on all the way through it, red lights halting them at every chance they got, but Seokmin barely noticed, too lost in their menial conversation to care. Soonyoung worked in a bar that Seokmin had never heard of, one nestled down an alley along a backstreet, and as much as Soonyoung tried to explain where the establishment was in the grand scheme of their neighbourhood, for the second time, Seokmin could not picture the area to save his life. However, Soonyoung did know where the pet shop that Seokmin worked at was and cursed himself for never having entered before, having rushed past the windows instead so that he wouldn’t be tempted to purchase a little bundle of life that he did not currently have the time for.

Seokmin couldn’t remain impervious to the red lights forever, growing increasingly anxious when his eyes kept flicking from the time displayed at the front of the bus to the time printed on his tickets, noticing not that much disparity between them as he willed the station to appear, and Soonyoung, once again, soothed his nerves by stating that it would be alright if he missed the train, because at least he still had somewhere to stay. As pleasant as the tingle was that ran down Seokmin’s spine at the reminder of the offer, he really did need to get home, now unable to notify anyone as to his whereabouts and not wanting to waste money he had already spent even if Soonyoung could make it worth his while.

They could meet later, tomorrow, even, when Soonyoung came back on the same train in the late morning, and maybe that was a better idea, maybe that would ensure that this wasn’t a fleeting spark that wouldn’t even burn all night, but then again, maybe they were missing out on midnight warmth just to protect the dignity of Seokmin’s bank account. Whatever the reason, slightly blurred with alcohol, not incoherently so but certainly skewed, they stepped off the bus together when it finally rolled to a stop at the station, swift words falling from Seokmin’s lips as he readied himself to run to the platform only to be pulled back by the hand, flummoxed. 

Soonyoung was holding something between his teeth, a lid of sorts, cylindrical, hooded by plump lips, and Seokmin realised what it was when he felt a tickle on the back of his palm that ran up over the just of his wrist, digits drawn in the same black that lined Soonyoung’s eyes, “My number, so you can call me later if you’re going to abandon me now.”

It was said jokingly so, words a little muffled and hard to decipher for the slowness of Seokmin’s mind, but it did make Seokmin feel a little bad, having inadvertently dragged Soonyoung away from the festival when he could’ve stayed for hours more, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Soonyoung rolled his eyes, capping the pencil and turning Seokmin to shove him into the station by his shoulders, “Just make sure you call me. Now go, you’re going to miss your train.”

Something snapped in Seokmin, anxious adrenaline stirred back up when he remembered his haste, and he called back over his shoulder to Soonyoung, “I will. Thank you for tonight!”

“You too!” Soonyoung smiled, blond strands hanging into his eyes, “Get home safely!”

Seokmin didn’t say anything in response to that, warmth swirling in his stomach as he grinned through his mad dash to the correct platform, though the expression gradually faded from his features. Up some steps, down some more, underground and through a corridor, Seokmin was well aware of the stares he was receiving, less than those who were dotted around in neon and scantily clad, but he was even more aware of the passage of time, bolting up some steps to come to a hunched lean at the top, exhausted. The train was there, interior lit like it housed the holy grail, and just as he was about to step into one of the few carriages, there was an announcement.

This train was no longer the correct train, and the train he should now get on was embarking in two minutes, from the _other_ side of the station. More odd stares were cast his way as he threw himself back down the steps, sprinted down the corridor, made a right and almost slapped straight into an open door, and he started to laugh in the face of his own misfortune. If his phone was charged, or working, he would’ve been notified about such a change, but he hadn’t. If he had checked the station boards for the departures, he would’ve seen the change, but he hadn’t. He knew that he couldn’t make it in time and yet his body tried anyway, getting him to the platform just in time for him to behold the sight of the train pulling away without him as one of its passengers, leaving him to feel as though he had no other options, but he had.

Spare change, a payphone glaring at him from further down the platform, and a singular number scrawled across his hand.

He marched over to it with a newfound purpose, punching the numbers in with his right while reading them from his left, and the dial tone lulled him into dwelling within his own thoughts. That was the last train back to his neighbourhood, there were likely other trains he could get that would lead him on a complicated route back but he didn’t have a phone, or the money, to navigate that system with, and he could not tell Mingyu and Minghao that he wouldn’t be back tonight for the same reason. As much as they liked to coddle and care for him, they would in no way undermine his desire to spend the night with Soonyoung, but they _would_ like at least a heads up, one that Seokmin was currently in no position to give, phone cord curled up in his pocket with the intention to charge it on the train journey back, to no avail.

There was a chance that Soonyoung wouldn’t pick up this call from an unknown number, not expecting to hear from Seokmin so soon, but Seokmin did not let that fear grip him, innately confident that Soonyoung would answer and yet still flooded with relief when a familiar voice came down the line.

_“Hello?”_

“Soonyoung? It’s me, Seokmin.”

_“Ah, my darling,” Soonyoung’s tone was as playful as it had been all night, never lacking in mischief that made Seokmin feel lightheaded, “Let me guess. You missed your train?”_

Seokmin gawked vacantly at the keypad, taking a moment to shed himself of his blank state, “Technically I made it to my train, but then my train became not my train anymore and I missed that one, yes.”

_Soonyoung hummed lazily, the noise cloaked in static, “So, would you like to stay the night now?”_

Seokmin laughed a little, as did Soonyoung, “I would, yes. Where is your hotel?”

_“It’s, uh,” Soonyoung sounded as though he was looking around, but at what, Seokmin didn’t know, “It would probably be faster to walk, in all honesty. I’m in a taxi up the road and you could probably catch up to us if you tried.”_

“That’s what I’ll do then,” Seokmin decided, ready to run again, just to be safe, “Thank you for giving me your number, though, or I would be panicking right now.”

_“If you’re really thankful, there’s a convenience store on the way up the road, buy us some soju when you walk past. See you soon!”_

Seokmin clicked his tongue when the phone beeped at him, alerting him to the fact that Soonyoung had hung up, but he couldn’t bring himself to be frustrated, too exhilarated by this prospect to care. The traffic that he had cursed was now the same traffic that kept Soonyoung in place while he ran back through the station and out onto the pavement, heart beating wildly as he brushed through the humidity in his extremely brisk walk to the store that was really more of a jog, and purchased the spirits, lingering for a while in the refrigerated aisle. Two bottles was more than enough to replenish the buzz that he had lost from his frenzied exercise, but not so much that he would be unable to recall the events of tonight in the morning, and this was a night he had a feeling he would want to cherish for years to come.

Prancing out of the store and into the heat of the night, he was called over to the taxi by Soonyoung hanging out of the window and yelling to him, welcomed into the vehicle by the scent of leather, sweat, and sun cream, and by Soonyoung’s beaming smile as he shuffled across to make room, the seats sticking to the backs of their thighs, shorts ridden up. Not too much was said, idle chatter hosted between themselves that the driver sometimes joined in on, and they were content to be back in each other’s presence, Seokmin amazed by how immediately relaxed he felt, worries melting away to become bygones. That was, in part, due to Soonyoung using all the brain power they had left between them to deduce that Seokmin could message his friends on social media, using Soonyoung’s account. There was no guarantee that they would open a message from a random person in any sort of rush, but at least it gave Seokmin peace of mind to know that he tried to inform them of his whereabouts.

Soonyoung had asked, in the cutest tone he could muster, if they were allowed ‘just a sip’ of soju in the back of the taxi, to which the forty odd year old driver was not swayed by but did go along in a joking tone, polite in his stern negation. That didn’t mean that they were the most coordinated when they popped the door open to step out of the vehicle, though to say they fell would be more accurate, and they thanked the driver through laughter, apologies following before they sealed the door shut with a wave.

There was nothing particularly special about this hotel, nothing at all. It had a reception painted in white and yellow lights running around the walls, plain rugs dotted between sofas, and an elevator whose buttons bore ghosts of numbers long since painted, fading with time. If Seokmin looked with more attention, more care, he might’ve noticed the intricate swirls of the skirting boards or the small chandelier hanging above a centerpiece of marble, but he was far too preoccupied with staring absentmindedly at Soonyoung who led the way into the elevator after collecting the keycard, stared back at when the doors closed and they were left to face each other.

Kissing seemed natural, closing the distance between them to the extent that Soonyoung took a step back to lean against the mirrored wall, back arched over the handrail, seemed to be the only reasonable course of action, and Seokmin let himself be pulled closer until their lips could melt together through smiles, breath mingling between them when Soonyoung spoke, “I am _so_ happy that you missed your train.”

Seokmin had to agree as he was dragged along after the elevator came to a stop with a ding, the monetary value of the unused tickets in his phone case forgotten, for now, in favour of trailing into the cool hotel room with a relieved sigh that turned into a huff of air when Soonyoung pushed him so his back met the mattress. A short fuss escaped Seokmin who worried over the glass bottles as they clinked next to him, handles of the plastic bag threaded loosely through his fingers, but his qualms were forgotten when Soonyoung clambered over him with haste, setting amusement into his tone, “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, you know? There’s no need to rush.”

“Who said I was rushing?” Soonyoung raised a brow, lips curled in a coquettish manner as he cradled Seokmin’s face between his palms, locking their lips together once more, only this time it was hotter, almost unbearingly so, in such a different way to being sandwiched into a crowd of heated bodies in merciless humidity. This was the warm weight of Soonyoung’s body pressing Seokmin down where they were connected at the hips, and it made Seokmin falter for a second, lying there almost listlessly, causing Soonyoung to pull back with a twinkle in his eyes, “You good?”

“Perfect,” Seokmin exhaled through an enamoured smile, freeing his hands so that he could rest them at Soonyoung’s hips, fingers creeping to the dip of his lower back, and it wasn’t too long before they found their way into Soonyoung’s hair, blond strands a little sticky; showered on by a cocktail, as expected.

Soonyoung hissed through his teeth at the slight tug though didn’t seem all too fazed by the small affliction, but he did reach around to take Seokmin’s hands into his own, to lace their fingers together and have the backs of Seokmin’s palms press into the sheets, and Seokmin arched pleasantly towards the stars when lips wandered along his jaw, sucking under it where flesh wrapped snugly around bone. 

“What do you want to do?” Soonyoung asked as his head receded further, wet patches left along Seokmin’s neck and down to his collarbones, across to his shoulders and back, and it was such a diligently gentle endeavour that it made Seokmin a little breathless, unable to comprehend the question.

“What?”

“Do you want to fuck?” Soonyoung specified, mischievous smile reappearing directly above Seokmin’s placid expression, and his hands detangled themselves from where they clasped Seokmin’s in warmth, instead coming to cradle Seokmin’s face, fingers brushing against where lips had once been, “Do you want to just get drunk and makeout some more? Do you want me to suck you off? Do _you_ want to suck _me_ off?”

Seokmin swallowed, mouth suddenly dry with how blunt Soonyoung was with his queries, beautifully so. Being upfront in these sorts of situations was necessary, Seokmin understood as much, but being forced to conceive of these scenarios on the spot and to choose between them, to give a response to Soonyoung without sounding too eager, or worse, disinterested, was a lot harder to do while Soonyoung was staring down at him looking insatiable, and delectable, blond strands hanging down to frame his face prettily in the grey moonlight.

The corners of Soonyoung’s lips curled up more at the stunned silence, eyes squinting the tiniest fraction in amusement, but Seokmin saw it, could probably count his eyelashes from this distance, “Do you want to do all of the above?”

“What do you want?” Seokmin managed to weasel out, the words not having the confident weight that he wanted them to have, that joking retort of an edge that instilled playfulness entirely lacking. He was not met with a tickling laughter at the state of himself, but breath did ghost across his face, across his lips, more specifically, when Soonyoung leaned impossibly closer, speaking his next words with a hum.

“I think all of the above sounds good, don’t you?”

That was how they found themselves halfway through a singular bottle of soju, sharing it as they had done with their first, pouring it down their throats without shot glasses at hand, and with Seokmin sat where the pillows should be, his back against the headboard and his head tipped back against the wall, lost in a haze, heat pooling in his stomach. Liquor alone couldn’t be blamed for that, as a warmth was sliding itself up and along his cock, slicked with spit, added to the coil at his core. He had a hand loosely threaded into Soonyoung’s hair, the other holding the bottle and barely remembering to keep it upright, and he gave a tug every now and then, sometimes purposeful, sometimes involuntarily, but Soonyoung preened either way, so the reasoning didn’t matter.

He had lost his shorts at some point, as had Soonyoung, and when he peeled his head away from the wall to blink down at the bobbing blond at his crotch, he noticed that Soonyoung had lost his T-shirt, too, entirely naked save for one sock, it seemed, and that made Seokmin smile before he moaned low in his throat, watching as Soonyoung licked a stripe up the side after, peering up for appraisal with a cheeky grin at his lips. Sinful words fell from him, words that were meant to tease, to rile Seokmin to a higher wanton state, and they did, easily, as if Soonyoung already knew exactly what made him tick. Seokmin reached to pull Soonyoung up so that they could kiss again, so that the crown of his head could melt back against the wall as Soonyoung climbed to perch across his lap, straddling, their skin sticking together with sheans of sweat.

Eternity passed between them, not one corner of the mattress left unexplored as their limbs tangled together in every which way, immune to the flow of time, guided by sensation and soft breaths that dragged into heaves, to moans, to whines and begs for more, for less, and Seokmin may have only known Soonyoung for the better part of this night, but he had never come to know somebody like this before. Boundaries were established and naturally swerved around, nothing stunted or strained, nothing uncomfortable or overbearing, and laughter was shared, numerous times, throughout the whole endeavour. 

They fell into the shower together shortly after, both sweaty and sticky, both aware that they probably should’ve washed the festival off of themselves before they let their lips explore every inch of skin, but they just giggled at the hindsight. Steaming water trailing over Seokmin’s body after the heat of the day seemed like torture but proved to be a delight, newly settled aches washed away with swirling suds that Soonyoung took great pleasure in lathering him in, murmuring his appreciation for broad shoulders and sturdy thighs, both of which were little with little marks of love, the inner thighs especially. 

More kisses were shared where they swayed, not dancing this time and just light feeling the alcohol taking its course, cheeks rosy as the shower door fogged up, and they came to lean against the tiles for a while before Seokmin blindly reached to turn the stream of water off with a creak of the tap. Drying themselves did not take long and Seokmin was playfully whipped with a towel when exiting the ensuite, scandalisation overtaking his features, and then he took the weapon from Soonyoung, feigning retaliation only to dry Soonyoung’s hair with it instead, ruffling gently, to which Soonyoung pouted, “Now you’re making me seem mean.”

“You are mean,” Seokmin said jokingly and was prodded directly in the belly button, the pair of them still stark naked, and he stumbled back with a small grunt, mind full of steam, pleasantly so.

They smelled the same now when they took to the sheets once again, dirty sheets against clean bodies, but there was nothing they could do about that. Citrus tickled at Seokmin’s nostrils when Soonyoung snuggled into his collar bones, and he inhaled in content, exhaling through a haze. The cool temperature of the room only made him feel hotter, made his eyelids feel heavier, and he was barely awake enough to register the goodnight kiss that was pressed against his neck, finally falling into slumber as the stars burned out the morning sky, smiling.

━☆━

Waking up early was a fact of life that Seokmin had learned to love. Granted, it had taken many years for that to come to fruition, but there was something to be said about watching the gears of the world slowly start to turn as dawn broke through the horizon, greeting you, who had already been awake for an hour or so, patiently waiting. This was not one of those occasions, however, and Seokmin was certain that the sun was rather high in the sky when he finally peeled his eyes open to immediately squint into the light, body aching when he rolled over, rolled into an empty space, a space so vacant that it snapped him into full alert and saw him spring into a seated position.

Soonyoung was gone.

For a few painstakingly long minutes, Seokmin was heartbroken, pathetically so, considering their circumstances. If he was to recount the events of the last day to anyone else, it was almost guaranteed that they would slap the label of a one night stand over it, and they would be well within their right to do so. They had met at a festival, gone back to a hotel together, slept together, and now Seokmin was left alone in the remnants of their escapade, thin sheet bunched around his hips. 

It was much more than that though, at least to Seokmin, and as crazy as it sounded, even to himself, he could see this actually going somewhere, far beyond one night on the outskirts of a distant city and at least to a second encounter, but preferably more, and Soonyoung seemed to think the same, expressing it through actions and words and his very being. To think that Soonyoung would just walk away from what they had found greatly wounded Seokmin, leaving his heart strings to tie themselves in knots only for them to loosen in confusion when he glanced at the bedside table, finding an assortment of things.

There was one pill of an unidentifiable nature, a glass of water, and a suspicious wad of cash. Now, if he knew for certain that the pill was a headache tablet, as he would like to believe, then the first two items were a sweet gesture, but the cash was throwing him off entirely. It made him feel a little cheap despite the generous amount when he picked it up to count the notes, like he had been paid for his company, valued with paper instead of a kiss good morning, and he noticed a back smudge on the back of his hand when he set the money down. Soonyoung’s number was still there, barely legible on the back of the palm and a lot clearer where it trailed up his wrist, and he blinked at it almost suspiciously, curious as to how it survived the shower; then again, showering inebriated was never going to be the most efficient hygiene routine.

Seokmin stared at his hand in the morning light, contemplated whether it was still morning at all, and then trudged to the ensuite after eyeing the pill and the glass and the cash for a few moments more, flummoxed further by what greeted him in the mirror, scrawled over his own reflection in matte black, the same substance that caked digits onto his flesh.

**_Had to leave to get my train and didn’t want to wake you because you were sleeping so cutely. I left you an ibuprofen if you need it, water if you want it, and enough cash to get you home because I have no doubts that you’ll make it up to me later <3 _ **

Seokmin raised his brows in relieved disbelief while smiling, wondering from where Soonyoung had been hiding that cash or if he had gone to draw it earlier in the morning, but he was grateful regardless, heart swelling at the gesture despite the vaguely raunchy connotations, worries quashed. Soonyoung wasn’t a bad person, he had just had to leave to catch his train like Seokmin had attempted to do last night only to be left on the platform, alone with his desires and a means to have them met. 

He returned to the bedside table to take what Soonyoung had so kindly placed there for him, harbouring a dull throb in his skull that could be from the constant music or the alcohol, or both, and then he went back to the basin. Freshening himself up seemed rather pointless as he lacked any and all of his toiletries, but he did comb hands through his hair to make it less unkempt, less like fingers had raked through it in shivering lines, and he rinsed his mouth out with water as that was the best that could be done. 

The words on the mirror stared back at him as he did so and he was struck with the need to take a picture of them, to capture at least one image of what had transpired this weekend for him to look back on, and he became saddened when he realised that he and Soonyoung hadn’t photographed any of their time together at all, only not dwelling on that for too long because he hoped there would be more time to come. When he got back home, he could go and wander around the other end of the neighbourhood, try and find the places that Soonyoung had spoken off moments after they first met, but somehow he had forgotten the most important part, the name of Soonyoung’s place of work.

He wracked his brain for the knowledge as he scoured the room for his phone, finding it where it had been lying dormant in the pocket of his shorts all night, cast to the floor, and he plugged it in, and waited, and waited. Nothing happened. It appeared to be broken, as he had feared, likely stepped on, and he sighed while returning it to the pocket, dressing himself with the only clothes he had, the ones he had worn yesterday that smelled like sweat and summer and boundless opportunities, but mainly sweat.

Back to the ensuite once more, now unable to immortalize this message plastered onto the mirror in black lines, Seokmin tried his best to scrub it off the surface with a wet corner of the towel, struggling more than he expected and coming to realise that it was waterproof. He did what he could, leaving the mirror with a slight grey tint, and then headed to collect himself together before he would have to find his way to the train station, cash in hand. He gathered the two empty soju bottles and the crumpled plastic bag to slot them back into it to dispose of them elsewhere, and he spotted his phone tucked under the pillow while doing so, and yet his phone was in his pocket, pulling his shorts to hang from his hip bone on the right side, heavy.

This was Soonyoung’s phone.

━☆━

At home, after a long train journey courtesy of Soonyoung, Seokmin was greeted by another, much shorter note, written on paper and not onto reflective glass, that informed him that his two housemates were out. The scrawled words didn’t seem to have any worry in them and Seokmin could not recall whether or not they had replied to the message he sent to them on Soonyoung’s phone, but they must’ve at least received it. 

He tossed himself into the bath and let himself steep for far longer than necessary, washing off the grime of being outdoors, and was made a tad forlorn when he no longer smelled of the hotel shampoo that he had fallen asleep inhaling, massaged into golden strands. He sat to the table afterwards with a warmed up, home cooked meal and spent the entire time staring at the screen of Soonyoung’s phone, waiting for it to light up. There had been the odd notification here and there throughout the day, many while Seokmin was on the train, but they were just emails, reminders, and this one app that kept telling Soonyoung to drink water endlessly. He hadn’t received any sort of message from a friend as far as Seokmin could tell, and one of the sort _finally_ came when Seokmin was contemplating whether or not to go on a walk through the neighbourhood and try and hunt down Soonyoung himself, entirely unable to remember the convoluted directions that Soonyoung had given him at the festival while speakers pulsed around them from every which way.

It was a message from someone called Wonwoo asking about shifts, if Soonyoung was sure he could cover Wonwoo’s shift tomorrow, and Seokmin almost knocked the phone off the table in his haste to pick it up, to press down on the screen until the option to type a response without unlocking the device was presented to him, and then he replied with a request. Not a few seconds later, that request was fulfilled, and Seokmin pressed the phone to his ear with an anticipatory bubble eating away at his meal, “Hello?”

_“Hello? Soonyoung?”_

There was an observant edge to Wonwoo’s tone that told Seokmin he knew that it wasn’t Soonyoung at the other end of the line already, “Yeah, this isn’t Soonyoung. I’m Seokmin. We met yesterday at the festival and he left his phone at the hotel.”

_“Ah, he was probably half asleep because he had to get an early train,” Wonwoo reasoned, more to himself than to Seokmin, and a contemplative silence followed his words for a moment, “I can come and get it from you if you let me know where you live.”_

“Actually,” Seokmin began, soft laughter around the word, almost nervous as if what he was about to ask would be such a crime to commit, “I don’t live too far from where he works, but I can’t remember the name of the place.”

_“You want to see him again?”_

The surprise in the query was barely masked at all and left Seokmin feeling a little stunned. Why _wouldn’t_ he want to see Soonyoung again? Did Wonwoo think that they had shared a night of only lust and wonder, nothing more? Did Soonyoung do this often? Had Soonyoung been stood up before? Was it really so unbelievable for two strangers to hit it off so well that Seokmin could practically picture the surprise on Wonwoo’s face despite having never laid eyes on the man?

Answers to these could be found along with Soonyoung himself, they could delve deeper into each other under the summer sun, learn of each other ambitions and inhibitions, but none of that could ever happen while they remained apart, separated only by Seokmin’s hazy memory, too enraptured by Soonyoung’s entire being to fully absorb all the words he spoke. Seokmin watched Soonyoung’s lips shape the name of the establishment in his mind, saw them stretch into a smile, teeth pearly white reflecting starlight, and he saw them in other places too, stretched elsewhere, kissing along heated skin in a cheeky grin.

“I would love to see him again.” 

━☆━

It was hard for Seokmin to believe that this was still the same day, that he had been tangled in the sheets with Soonyoung in the early hours, while he now strolled along backstreets he had never stepped on in his life, accessible only through narrow alleys that were surprisingly numerable. The humidity was no less relenting than it had been yesterday, the only mercy being that the sun was sleeping somewhere off to the side and wasn’t pelting him with beams of light, so he was at least grateful for that. 

Neon met him on his path, signs for pubs and other small businesses, and this particular street was bustling with life much more than Seokmin had anticipated from Soonyoung’s descriptions of the place. For every window that he looked into he was met with tables full of people all laughing, sharing in food and drink, and it filled him with an odd sense of curiosity, a wonder as to what their lives were like, what had brought them to this backstreet on this night, and if there story would be as mystical as his own - probably not.

He stopped paying attention to the signs, occupied with gazing through the glass as he walked on by each place, and he only knew he had arrived at his destination when a flash of blond filled his vision, pulling him to a stop. It was Soonyoung, for certain, behind the bar and wearing a button up with his sleeves bunched up to his elbows and the top few buttons dastardly unbuttoned, smiling, as ever, at whatever the patron before him was saying. His hair was a fluffy halo of blond, not plastered to his forehead with sweat or collected between Seokmin’s knuckles, but his eyes were still outlined in black, almost catlike.

Seokmin felt oddly underdressed in an oversized shirt and shorts that were similar to the ones he wore yesterday, but the heat would not allow him to wear much else in good comfort, and if Soonyoung had appreciated his appearance upon first glance yesterday, both covered by darkness and surrounded by the bassline, having been assailed by the summer sun, then his appearance now would make quite the stellar improvement, oversized garb be damned.

Crisp air blanketed Seokmin in a kind reprieve when he stepped inside, no one paying him much mind as he sauntered on over to the bar to take a seat at one of the stools, eyes on Soonyoung the entire time. He was busy working, Seokmin could see that clearly, pouring pints here and there up and down the long counter of a table for them to be placed on trays and carted off to distant tables, and it was after a minute or so that their gazes locked together and Soonyoung became so taken back that he almost poured a drink over this poor man, apologising profusely thereafter.

“What are you doing here?” Soonyoung demanded to know, the same playful lilt in his tone that Seokmin had already come to know, and to love, and it was evident that he was delighted to see Seokmin again so soon in the way that his eyes still reflected the starlight, only this time there were no stars to reflect.

“Wanted to see you again,” Seokmin uttered smoothly, internally rejoicing as he had spent the best part of the last half hour repeating the line to himself as he trekked across the neighbourhood, and he presented Soonyoung’s phone to him, “Also, you forgot this.”

“Oh thank God,” Soonyoung took it and gave it his attention for a fraction of a second before it was pocketed, eyes returning to bore into Seokmin, “I realised I’d left it when I got on the train, but it was a bit too late then.”

Seokmin hummed in kind understanding, “Thank you for the money, really. I would’ve gone into overdraft if you hadn’t left me it.”

Soonyoung waved it away, wordlessly refilling a glass for someone after they had appeared at the bar, “Don’t worry about it. Can I get you anything? Or are you just here to ogle at me while I pull pints?”

That didn’t sound like a terrible way to spend the evening, in all honesty, but it also didn’t affirm for Seokmin what he needed to know for sure, in the plainest and simplest terms, and that was whether Soonyoung wanted this to go further than the one night they had shared already, past something casual. If he didn’t want to, then that was fine, they could be friends, perhaps, or maybe they could fuck around every now and then, who knows, but Seokmin didn’t want either of those things if he was being completely honest with himself. 

The feeling of being so intrinsically linked to Soonyoung was not something that he had ever experienced before, and he could now say with the utmost clarity that it was not a result of the heat getting to him, or the alcohol, or any high of the moment or the thrill of the encounter, and that it was something he still felt now, a whole day since they had first met each other in a night that started with a scratch and ended in sweet kisses. It was something that he wanted to at least _try_ for, to see if it would go anywhere or if it would fizzle out, if maybe they would spend this one hot summer together and then that would be it, the passion would wilt away and freeze over, but he doubted that being the case.

Soonyoung was looking at him expectantly, one brow raised in the low light as hearty chatter was had around them, and Seokmin swallowed thickly, and smiled, “I don’t want a drink, but I would like to take you on a date, if you’ll let me?”

Silence encased Soonyoung’s features in a still position, one of bewilderment, and for a horrible moment Seokmin thought he was about to be rejected and walk home with his head hanging between his shoulders, and then in the next moment he was the one bewildered as Soonyoung snorted a laugh and fetched a glass, filling it as he spoke, “Anyone would think you just asked for my hand in marriage with how nervous you are. Of course I’ll go on a date with you, you idiot.”

Seokmin sagged in relief, visibly so, as Soonyoung laughed at the display again, and then he gestured to the drink that was placed in front of him, “I said I didn’t want one?”

“It’s on the house,” Soonyoung may as well have winked with the expression he was making, and then he was called to the other end of the bar, raising a hand to signal that he was on his way, “I get off in a few hours. You good to hang around until then?”

“Another night in bed isn’t exactly what I had in mind for a date,” Seokmin admitted, not precisely sure what he _was_ thinking of doing in place of that, but it would’ve been something to treat Soonyoung as a proper thank you for the whole no money situation.

“Who said we were going to bed? There’s plenty to do around here at night,” Soonyoung’s smile told tales that Seokmin couldn’t hope to imagine, and would soon come to experience firsthand, and then he was off to attend to those who wanted more liquor for their meals or for their mouths, slipping back into work as though he hadn’t just bewitched Seokmin where he sat.

Sweet was a word that Seokmin had never used to describe a pint of beer before, but this was one that Soonyoung had poured, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired entirely by my own festival experience and further fueled by the song, only i did not meet soonyoung in the DJ tent but someone did throw a 10p at my tits where it then remained in my bra and was likely later spend on a greggs sausage roll, so you win some you lose some
> 
> also blue sapphire is the cocktail that seoksoon both had during svts cocktail party
> 
> comments and kudos would be lovely!!
> 
> **edit post reveals:** i tried SO hard to stay anonymous for this lads i literally changed my usual line break, didn't write a single :] in the author's notes, didn't link to twt (ofc), didn't format the song link in the way i usually would AND wrote from seokmin's pov for the entire thing AND YET some of you STILL knew it was me and that fills me with so much joy because you recognise my writing style?? that's insane?? you've read enough of my writing to be able to do that?? i love you?? but also you made my efforts futile, so, guess i have to try harder!
> 
> ☆ [hmu on twitter! @xiiaeo](https://twitter.com/xiiaeo) ☆


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